26 Meeting Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A three-storey two-bay Georgian terraced house, built c.1830 and located to the south side of Meeting Street in Dromore town centre. Square plan with single-storey flat-roof extension to rear.

Pitched natural slate roof with angled ridge tiles and rendered chimneystack. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods with cast-iron downpipes and hoppers. Walling is smooth render with banded rustication to ground floor and raised quoins to upper floors. Windows are 3/6 timber framed sliding sash to second floor with projecting painted sills; 6/6 to first floor in moulded architraves and 6/6 to ground floor, all with horns and projecting painted sills. Replacement timber-framed casements to rear.

The principal elevation faces northeast and is two openings wide at each floor. To ground floor right is a recessed four-panelled timber door with brass door furniture and transom light in moulded architrave.

The southeast elevation is abutted by a two-storey building with segmental-headed open carriage-arch entrance to ground floor leading to rear of the building.

The southwest (rear) elevation has two windows to second and first floor left; abutted at ground floor by the flat-roof extension.

The northwest elevation is abutted by adjoining building (HB17/15/033A).

Setting

Street-fronted with small enclosed garden to rear. Larger yard to rear accessed via carriage-arch entrance to neighbouring building.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Smooth render
Windows : Timber-framed sash
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

No. 26 Meeting Street, one of a pair of three-storey townhouses (the other being No. 24 Meeting Street – HB17/15/033A), was constructed in the early-to-mid-19th century. It is not certain when the current houses were constructed but they are late Georgian in appearance; two buildings occupying the current site of the properties can be seen on the Townland Valuation town plan of Dromore in c. 1830. In the 1830s the Townland Valuation of Drumbroneth noted that No. 26 Meeting Street was occupied by a Mr. Hugh Frazer, who the Ulster Town Directories (1852) note was employed as a carpenter.

Between c. 1830 and 1861 the value of No. 24 Meeting Street rose to £7 in Griffith’s Valuation; the value of the adjoining No. 24 was also increased at the same time; it is probable that nos 24 and 26 Meeting Street were constructed (or modified) between c. 1830 and 1861 resulting in this valuation increase. The presence of Victorian features on the Georgian-style houses, such as their window-mouldings, make the case more likely that nos 24-26 Meeting Street were constructed after 1830 and are representative examples of the transitional architectural period between Georgian formalism and Victorian expressionism.

By 1861 No. 26 Meeting Street lay vacant, however it was owned by a Mr. Robert Humphries and was reoccupied in 1871 by a Mr. Hugh Larkin, the first in a series of brief occupants. Ownership of the building passed to William J. Doloughan, a farmer from Islandderry (1901 Ulster Town Directory), in 1887 and by 1901 No. 26 Meeting Street was occupied by William Smyth who was employed as a Vetinary surgeon.

The 1901 Census notes that Smyth (33, Presbyterian) lived alone employing a single domestic servant; the census building return described No. 26 Meeting Street as a 2nd class dwelling that consisted of eight rooms and possessed two stables, a boiling house and a store as its sole out offices located in the yard to the rear of the terrace. In 1905 the property passed to William Shields, however Shield died by 1911 and his widow Agnes had taken possession of the address. Agnes Shields (78, Presbyterian) was described as a retired farmer in the 1911 Census and she continued to reside at No. 26 Meeting Street until her own death c. 1923 when a Mr. George McGarrity occupied the house, residing there until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930.

In 1969 Brett described Meeting Street as ‘one of the best places left in Ulster to catch the flavour of the late 18th or early 19th century outskirts of a small textile town’ and nos 24-26 Meeting Street in particular as ‘a good pair of larger houses, three-storey, one of two bays [No. 26] and one of three [No. 24], with glazing bars complete, of well painted stucco, the ground floor rusticated’ (Brett, p. 28). Nos 24-26 Meeting Street were listed in 1983; No. 26 continues to be occupied as a private dwelling, the only structural alteration of note is the modern single-storey flat-roof extension that was added to the rear of the building after 1973 (not depicted on 1973 Ordnance Survey map).

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/21/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/21/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/21/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/21/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1919-20
5. PRONI VAL/1/D/3/13 – Townland Valuation map c. 1834
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/342 – Townland Valuations c. 1830
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/38A – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
8. PRONI VAL/12/E/122/3/4 – Annual Revisions Town Plan 1906 – c. 1935
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/10A – Annual Revisions 1864-1878
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/10B – Annual Revisions 1879-1891
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/10C – Annual Revisions 1892-1898
12. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/11A – Annual Revisions 1899-1910
13. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/11B – Annual Revisions 1911-1919
14. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/11C – Annual Revisions 1920-1930
15. Ulster Town Directories (1852-1918)
16. Ordnance Survey map – 202-4SW (1973)

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in the towns and villages of Mid Down: Hillsborough, Dromore, Dromara, Ballynahinch, the Spa, Drumaness and Saintfield’ Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1974.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A three-storey two-bay Georgian terraced house, built c.1830, one of a pair with No 24 (HB17/15/033A). Architectural detailing is largely intact with much historic fabric surviving. It is a good example of the type, having developed fro a Georgian original to a Victorian appearance. Together with No 26 and these buildings form a representative example of the development of the town and its building styles.

General comments

New listing criteria R & S to be added when available. NO'R 11.10.2013